Reality meets Hogwarts
by Madhvi Sharma
Summary: Ally Gordon is a mudblood, in the definition of the sorcerers. Little does she realise while shopping for her beloved HARRY POTTER books that she has just won the biggest fantasy she could ever have dreamt of.
1. DAY one

Day one

Years have passed since Ally Gordon read the Harry Potter. It was one hell of a experience. Nostalgia kicked in whenever she thought about it. How it smelled...and felt and meant ...to her personally. Not the books, the world. The Hogwarts, as it was written on her school backpack. She couldn't pick even if someone forced her to as to what she loved more...the setting or the characters. A bit of a rebel she was. One frosty cold afternoon during December, she was returning from the school and her feet got stoned at the sight of a banner saying 'major book sale' at the front glass of the book store. A lot of characters were printed on the poster ranging from Frodo and Gandalf to Bella and Edward to Percy Jackson and Annabeth but all that grabbed her attention was just one...'the boy who lived'.

Her pocket was much less of a concern when it came down to Harry Potter. Her feet moved towards the store and her eyes staring intently at the banner. She seemed to be on autopilot. Without wasting another minute, she cruised inside the store rummaging through the book shelves and trying to find her hidden pearl. After a lot of searching she finally came down to the one and only section devoted to Harry Potter. She felt like such an idiot wasting this much time on the other shelves. Her heartbeat quickened as she saw the stack of it. After picking one random part of the series which turned out to be "the order of the phoenix" she sniffed it and smiled while hazing around if someone just caught her doing that...

But then her mind also said to not care about anyone.

She picked up a bunch of hardcovers all being the last four parts in the series and headed towards the counter. The counter was strangely empty despite of the sale going on which she giggled at due to the treasure that she carried.

"Your name?" The man behind the counter asked.

"Ally...Ally Gordon."

"40 dollars, Ma'am."

Ally took the change out and paid him the money and started to head out of the shop with the brown paper bag containing her books.

"Excuse me, please." The man at the counter called out to her

She turned around

"Yes?"

"It's just that you're our first customer and on top of that you're lucky to have selected Harry Potter. I mean you could have gone for any other series in the sale."

"What do you mean?"

"There is a small gift we stay he'd with our hardcover 'Harry Potter' sale. And since you are the one who bought these so I think you should have it."

"What's the gift?"

"It's packed actually. We never know what the customers end up getting. Mostly there are watches, stationary items, action figures etc."

"Okay, that sounds cool."

"Yes, you may choose."

The man lifted a big carton filled with gifts of different shapes and different colored wraps.

"Let me just bring them all out." He added.

The man tilted the wooden cardboard box and let all the gifts slide down on the counter and one of them fell down on the ground.

"Can you pick that one up?" He asked

"I think I got mine."

"Great!"

She lifted the bluish silver shimmery wrapped little cube box. It wasn't as big as the ones that came out of the carton. In fact some of them could be made out but some were just too big that she wondered what could possibly be in those. But this little cube felt right and that's why she took it home.

Without eating her lunch or even changing she rushed upstairs into her room and sat on the bed while looking at the cube one last time with the wrap on.

Taking a paper cutter, she cut the scotch tape and unraveled inside it.

It was a velvety black box from inside and after opening it, she found a ball inside it.

A glass ball. It was really cute but she kept staring at it for a while as to what did it have jn resemblance to Harry Potter and that's when it hit her that it was actually miniature of hogsmeade within. She bought it up close and examined every little detail.

"I LOVE IT!"

But...

There was something missing...something that took tiny little pieces away from it being the perfect hogsmeade.

She kept it on her study table and went to freshen up and change her uniform to get into something comfortable.

"Ally, lunch is ready." A woman called out to her from downstairs.

"Just a sec, mom."

She patted her face dry with a towel and grabbed her sweater from the bed and headed downstairs. Hours passed by as she ate and watched television and also did her homework.

It was ten in the night by now.

She headed back upstairs and grabbed 'The Half-Blood Prince' from inside the paper bag and decided to read it in the moonlight as it was full moon that day. She kept the paper bag just beside the ball on the table and as she was about to head towards the window, she heard something crash...

She turned around to see but she didn't have any time as the room for filled with excessive vibrant light that it shielded her vision to utmost extent. 


	2. Exploring HOGSMEADE!

The next thing baffled her enough to step back and crash against something that was a statue of a boy who had a wand in his hand. She instantly turned around to see what she had crashed into and turns out it was a protruding wall. She looked down at her feet and she was wearing black cowboy boots. God knows where they come from and her attire was completely different too. She had black robes on with a pleated grey skirt than ran down to her knees with white stockings. It was snowing and it was dark. Everywhere around her were cottages and little shops which had roofs covered with snow and even the streets were covered with snow. It was all so enchanting with Christmas trees planted at the side of the doorway of every cottage and shop. It was a dream maybe or reality but she remembered the last bit which was the ball crashing down on the ground. So, definitely not a dream. But what if, the ball transferred her to a dream or a different reality altogether or just in a different dimension. Whatever it may be...it felt just too heavenly to even worry the slightest bit as to what it was. Because if it was a dream then it would break soon and she would hate herself to not have explored the whole hogsmeade and wonder in just about every single shop.

She looked at the statue again and this time, she saw something else. It was the wand that caught her attention because the wand wasn't normal. It was the "elder wand". She knew for a fact that the elder wand belonged to only some...

It was a treasure. Not all can have it. Not all could bear the power of it. Therefore, it had to be someone of significance. For a moment, some names did strike her head but she just didn't pay much of the attention although, one part of her wanted to. But then, there was the whole hogsmeade in front of her. It ached her to just stay in one place when every single drop of blood in her body wanted to scream with delight. She met eyes with the statue one last time and headed on.

The time of the day was kind of difficult to tell due to the greyish blue clouds that had taken over the whole sky. Didn't feel like the night but she couldn't make out what was going on.

She went on to gaze around what the cottages had in store for her and tried to look for the shops that she already had some information about like the Zonko's joke shop or any pub where she might luckily bump into some of the students of Hogwarts.  
After wandering for a bit,she came to a halt. It all felt different from what she read in the books. The cottages felt weird for some reason. The moonlight fell upon the windows and the walls and it felt as if the whole hogsmeade was abandoned.

By all...? This just sounded ridiculous.

No shops had the lights on. If any lights could be seen then, they were just the Christmas tree lights hanging at every particular spot. Now, she realised all of it. It wasn't delightful, it was just plain dead.

A metal clanking noise was soon heard. She hid herself behind the tall bushy christmas tree. The noise kept coming closer and closer. She could feel the hotness in her body rise up a level and her hot breath against her cool skin.

It sounded like a person in chains dragging himself down the pavement and maybe she was right. But, when it did come she couldn't help but gasp at the horrific picture of the entity dragging itself without any feet down the snowy path._ A ghost..._

She closed her eyes for a while imagining the worst of the worst as to what might happen if the ghost figured out she's here. She even stopped breathing for a while and altered the way she inhaled in order to conceal her presence. But it didn't seem as if it was required because the ghost just went on, without stopping anywhere, sliding a couple inches above the ground.

It was slightly see through and she remembered Nicholas Flamel but he looked quite elegant even with his head cut off than this hideous creature moving in front of her sight.

And then, the ghost was out of sight. She didn't follow him or anything but just breathed normally behind the christmas tree. She wanted to be somewhere which felt more like Harry Potter's world and not the dark world. But it probably wasn't the end of it. Another sound came in or sounds…. There was a subtle buzzing underneath Ally's feet. It felt like an earthquake building up. Things moving up and down and next thing she knew was an army of werewolves running down the same path as the ghost. And in the middle of all that rush, a werewolf got out of the crew and looked around as if he sensed something. She cupped her mouth with her hand. The werewolf with his bony limbs and his bumpy spine, had the look of death on his face. She couldn't stare at him. The werewolf neared himself to the tree and sniffed around and came down to her boots.

She backed off a bit and the werewolf gazed up. The red eyeballs of the werewolf pierced into the night like no other. The werewolf growled softly and bared his canines with saliva dripping down his whiskers and jaw. Her heart was pounding and her head hammering itself with self destructive thoughts. The whole fleet had passed by.

She stepped back gently and the werewolf kept coming closer. The gaunt werewolf wouldn't stop and she ran away but not fast enough. He growled and this time not softly while bolting at her and gripping her by the ankle, pulling the floor beneath her feet making her collapse to the floor with a thud.

"Stupefy!" A ray of emerald green light struck the darkness, coming out of a man's wand who stood at a distance from her and the werewolf.

As the green ray hit the werewolf, he backed away and fell down on the ground.

"What are you doing here?" The man said.

She turned around and saw the man standing there.

"Professor Lupin!" She blurted out.

"Get up and don't mess with the miniatures."

_What!_

"Get up, Ally. Get in this boarding hat. This will take us back."

_How does he even know my name?_

She went towards professor Lupin and stepped into the massive hat, with high walls, inside which he stood and in a matter of seconds, it generated a whirlwind of hurricane around, making all the cottages and shops to merge within each other and the hat dipped in… submerging deeper and deeper. Meanwhile, she held onto the hat tightly.


	3. Obliviate!

All the students standing in front stared at her as if they knew her little secret which professor Lupin seemed totally unapprised of. Or were these students also fake just like her?

"How did you get in there?" Professor Lupin inquired

"I...um...was just." She stammered

"Where did you get it?"

She blinked twice and still keeping her mouth shut.

"The marauders map? Where did you get your hands on it?" Professor asked

_**He thinks I used the Marauders map!**_

"I didn't..."

"Stop lying. You can only manage your mischief just once. No more than that."

_**What am I supposed to do? What if he asks me for the map?**_

"My apologies, Professor."

Lupin pierced his gaze straight at her coldly but something about his cold stare gave off the feeling of concern beneath.

"Go back and join the other students until I fix this miniature." Professor Lupin said.

Ally gazed at the miniature which emitted a thick black soot and although, it looked exactly like the ball she had gotten at the store but with a big crooked hole at the top of this one which very well seemed like it got cracked or something.

She went towards the students expecting nobody to talk to her but she also had a tinge of hope clinging onto her considering the fact if professor Lupin would remember her from nowhere then others might just too.

"Hi...". She waved at the students and as expected nobody talked to her. A chubby boy eating candies and stuffing the plastic wrappers in his trouser's pocket just stared at her plainly with some gooey green stuff dripping off of his jaw.

_**He looks so much like Crabbe.**_

Some other students just rolled their eyes and a couple of them sent a half hearted 'Hi' towards her.

The bell rang soon enough and she felt a release from the suffocation of being with these constricted group of mean jerks. All do them rushed out of the classroom and she glanced back once more at Professor Lupin.

_**Should I tell him the truth? Maybe, he will understand. I mean, he should... And apart from all this, I don't even know which year am I In and which house do I represent?**_

Lupin was busy examining the soot coming out of the glass and he took something out of a wooden rectangular box kept on the shelf and threw it inside the ball and it disappeared within the ball.

"Where the hell have you been?" A girl just grabbed Ally's hand and took her with herself.

"I have been looking for you for so long. And what were you doing outside the class of the defense against the dark arts." She continued.

"Who are you?" Ally blurted out

She stared at Ally in disbelief.

_**Yes...maybe not the best move for right now.**_

"Listen, I don't remember anything. Someone casted the spell 'Obliviate' on me and ever since that night, I can't remember anything."  
"Who would do that to you?" She still had the look of disbelief as if Ally didn't have any great potential enemies who would do this to her.  
"How would I remember who did that to me?"  
"Do you remember your name?"  
"Yes."  
"You think I am a dunderhead. I am not falling for those again." She mockingly giggled at her.

"What?"

"It makes you forget every single detail about everything you ever knew existed and the fact that you..."

Ally cut her off in between "I heard it from Professor Lupin."

Silence fell around for a while...

"So, you actually are?"

"Do I look like I am kidding?"

"No..." Her voice cooled off at the end.

"Quickly now, tell me your name and everything else that I should be knowing."

_**But how do I know that I can trust her. **_

_**She seems nice but they say everybody has three faces.**_

"Let's start with who are you to me?"

They were strolling in the open corridors of the Hogwarts castle from where the cold biting wind would enter sometimes and swirl around them.

"I am your..."

Ally interrupted again.

"Honest. TOTALLY."

"Yes, sure. So, I am Natalia Goodwin and I am your best friend. You used to always call me 'Nelly'."

_**That sounds a bit overstated but I can roll with it.**_

Ally smiled at Natalia and they both strolled on while chatting together.

"What year is it?"

"1994."

"Wow. It's ..."

_**Shut up, Ally.**_

"What?"

"Nothing...I didn't have any idea about that."

"What house am I in?"

"Hufflepuff."

"What! Why...I want Slytherin!"

"But at the sorting hat ceremony, you said you wanted so badly to be in my house."

"What yours?"

"Gryffindor."

"Oh! I love that too."

"What do you mean by 'too'?" She rolled her eyes at Ally.

"So, you are saying that the sorting hat ceremony is already a thing in the past. So, what else have I missed?"

"Nothing...you have been everywhere. Attending all the parties and little ceremonies."

"Natalia, it's all gone from my memory. So, it almost feels as if it never happened."

"In regards to that, you have been here for two months already and we have had our first quidditch match and you didn't get selected."

_**I knew it.**_

"Did you get selected?"

"No."  
_**Bingo!**_

"Tell me about Harry Potter. Everything."

"Harry Potter...I doubt that because I don't know much about him."

"But you're in gryffindor, right?"

"Yeah, but not the same grade as his. We're younger to him by a couple years."

"So, what's happening in Hogwarts these days."

"Rumors suggest that a three or four tier competition is about to take place."

"What competition?"

"I don't know much but it has some crazy stuff inside the rounds. Maybe even deadly."

_**This must be the goblet of fire.**_

"Are Beauxbatons and Durmstrang going to join?"

"What's that?"

"Nevermind."  
_**I never wanna get out of here.**_


	4. THE NON COMMITTAL TYPE

_**It isn't that bad to be here…I already have felt what the common room of Gryffindor looks like from the excerpts of the books but the Hufflepuff is quite a new experience.**_

As she got out of her chamber and into the common room where the burgundy rusted couches were laid out, she spotted two boys occupying a large couch with rolled arms. They weren't visible except for their heads. She went and sat on one of the couches while reading the book "The Tales of Beedle the Bard". She could sense the two of them staring at her as if she invaded in their privacy by sitting in front of them.

"I've read that book." One of the guys said to the other and when she lifted her gaze up to look at them, she saw Cedric Diggory sitting right next to Draco Malfoy.

_**Draco? Here?**_

"Hey Cedric, are we allowed to bring in the people of other houses inside our common room?" She asked Cedric because it felt way more comfortable than to ask Draco himself.

"No, it's a little secret of mine and I can let you in if you promise to not let it out." He said

_**That was some quick decision right there.**_

"I won't" she said

"I know that." He winked at her. "He's not Draco. I mean, he sure does look like him but he is actually Banner."

"Banner?"

"My dog, Ally. You forgot about Banner?" He sounded a bit bitter.

"Oh, not that. Of course, I remember Banner. I am sorry, I am just way too shaken up by Draco sitting here right now." _**God, save me.**_

"It's alright, it happens." He calmed down

For a moment, nobody uttered a single word and Ally stared at Cedric who was already looking and she gave him an awkward smile.

_**I must find a way to get out of here. This awkwardness is killing me.**_

"So, you want some alone time with Draco? I think I can read this somewhere else." She pointed at the book while lifting off of the couch.

"That sounds about right."

She smiled one last time at him and at Draco too and proceeded towards the exit.

She pulled the doorknob and opened it just a wee bit but it got closed with a loud thump as Cedric circled around her and held her by the waist.

"Hey! What on earth are you doing?" A giggle escaped her mouth and he grinned at her too. Dread crept up in her body as he grazed his fingers up her arms and pulled her in towards himself by grabbing her waist.

_**Who is he to me? Not a friend certainly. But then…. this is so uncomfortable. What if he isn't my boyfriend? And maybe he isn't... because it definitely shouldn't felt wrong. And this feels not wrong but also not right. **_

"Hey Cedric, can we talk." He looked down at her with him being a foot taller than her. His hands still rested on her waist.

"Talk about what? Ally, I am done being away from you. I don't care what happens but I want this. You call it love or lust or whatever but I just can't fathom being away from you and all these days when you were gone…it was so hard on me. For you, it may be easy but not so much for me." He bent down nearing his face to hers while cupping her face in his long hands.

"I think it's about time that I tell you everything."

"What do you mean?"

"Firstly, I would like some distance because it doesn't feel…"

"Right?"

"No…but I kind of feel uncomfortable."

"So, this is uncomfortable for you now. Well, that's a shocker." He stared at her incredulously.

"What is it?" He added after a while

"Can we sit down for a while?"

"No, tell me right now. Right here, tell me everything and get it over with. My brain won't shut off if you don't tell me what's going on." He let go of her waist.

_**Why is he being so intense? Or was I too for him? But one thing I totally forgot about… Draco. **_

She looked to her side and Draco sat there motionless and then looked back at him.

"Oh, I told you he is not real. It's Banner and we have made out so many times in front of banner so I guess it won't be an issue now."

"_**Made out!" Wow… this guy will make my head wander to a gazillion different places.**_

"Cedric, I honestly don't know what I feel for you."

"Yes, Ally. You think, I am crystal clear about you? But we do have something for each other…right?" He cupped her face again

"I didn't mean that."

"Then, what is it?" His eyes pierced into hers as if he sensed something bad.

"No, it's not bad or could be maybe…" she said "But I have no idea or I should say no memory of us. And even when you said made out…."

He cut her off in between "What! What did you just say?" Cedric's frowned and took another step back.

"What is this? Are you playing with me here?" He sounded defensive and exasperated.

"I would just say that I am being totally honest here. Someone casted a spell on me."

"I know what you are trying to do here. All those days, when you weren't sure about me you actually were searching for a way out and now it seems you have got that."

"It was **obliviate**."

Cedric fell into rumination for a while and his mouth was ajar while he looked at her intently.

"I…. I just don't know if I should trust you right now. Maybe, I can't face any of this." He blurted out

"You have to…."

He lifted his gaze from the floor and looked at her in disbelief.

"Stop what you are doing." He yelled at her

_**Well, this isn't appropriate.**_

"I think you need to help me out here." In the face of his growling enraged voice, Ally's voice sounded like a puppy's cry.

"No, I won't. I can't…do this anymore." He said and turned away from her.

"There can be a probability of us if that's what you want." _**What he wants? This sounds really bad. **_"We can start all over again from square one."

"I doubt that you will change. You will still be the same plain old, confused, non-committal Ally. You're memory may have zoned out but you're still you and if you weren't sure about me in the past then I don't think we should be doing what we are doing right now." He said turning a bit to her side.

_**Am I confused or non committal? I don't think so or maybe… for him.**_


	5. Chapter 5

He turned to her once again and kept staring until his eyes got welled up. All those harsh words that he said to her and she despite of her being of a vengeful nature didn't think anything of those because she certainly didn't feel the pain that he was feeling. How weird it was that behind a veil his heart was crying and just in front of him a person stood who had absolutely no clue as to what was he feeling within.

The tears filled his eyes making his vision blurry and he closed his eyes as if trying to be relaxed somehow which was painful for now. And the next thing that happened was him barging out of the common room and he shut the door behind him with a thud and all she could do was call him back but she didn't do it. Because in that moment, she had a deep clear knowing that he was gone…forever. All her brain was capable of thinking was his eyes being welled up but she won't shed a tear because they didn't come to her as they did so easily to him. Maybe this was one of the reasons why she knew he was a bygone. She stood strong and held herself together in that fragile moment where everything started break.

_**Break…? For real!**_

As the thought of everything collapsing down hit her head, everything inside the chamber started to fall. The walls cracked, shattered and collapsed down on the ground and she couldn't do anything but just run away. Opening the gate, she rushed out as well and screamed for help but nobody could be seen. It was all hazy as if the walls were emitting some kind of smoke. It started to fizzle out of everywhere and nothing was clear now. Heart mind was throbbing with pain and she lay on the ground unconsciously and saw somebody come up to her and kneel down to look closely at her face and the light was so strong that she had to shield her eyes through all of that.

_**Don't come near me. I want to be alone.**_

"Stop! Stop! Maintain your distance from me. I know you are some evil. I have sensed your spirit." She screamed on top of her lungs

"Maybe someday but surely not today." A girl stood near her while she lay on her bed fighting her sleep demons.

"Ally, wake up! What are you dreaming about?" A brunette girl said who stood by her bedside.

She woke up heavy headed looking everywhere hazily.

"Where am I?" She asked

_**Where is Cedric?**_

"In your room"

_**So, there is no Cedric and no romance and no unrequited love lurking around. Thank the heavens!**_

"WOW!" She blurted out

"What happened?" The girl asked

"Nothing…I just am very sleepy right now. I think I should hop in the shower." Having said that Ally climbed out of the bed and went outside the room where she saw the two guys sitting on the couch.

_**With only their heads visible but the secret is already out.**_


End file.
